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In a bid to support Nigeria’s agriculture and economic diversification drive of the Federal Government, the World Bank says it has so far spent about N7.78bn ($39m) on the third National Fadama Development Project.

The world bank who made this revelation in a statement signed by its Task Team Leader, Dr. Adetunji Oredipe, noted that it would commence its Fadama Implementation Support Mission from the 10th to 27th of June across eight states of the country in conjunction with the federal ministries of Finance and Agriculture.

The statement reads in part, “The board of the bank had approved additional IDA credit of $200m on June 28, 2014 to assist the Federal Government of Nigeria to scale up the impact on the ground and strengthen the development effectiveness of the Third National Fadama Development Project by aligning it more closely with the government’s agricultural programmes,” the statement added.

The bank also maintained that the additional financing would support clusters of farmers in six selected states with comparative advantage and high potential to increase production and productivity of cassava, rice and sorghum, as well as horticulture value chains and link them to better organised markets.

According to the bank, as of the last mission in January 2016, 930 business plans have been prepared across the states, out of which 424 business plans have been approved and disbursed.

“These business plans covered 5,088 hectares of farms across the four value chains across the core and production cluster states. Also, harvesting of rice cultivated during the rainy season has been completed in Kano, Lagos, Niger and Enugu States while cassava has been harvested in Kogi State.

“In addition, the first microfinance bank established through savings mobilised by Fadama Farmers Community Association in Plateau State has been completed and received provisional and operational licence from the Central Bank of Nigeria for take-off while construction and rehabilitation of the Agricultural Equipment Hiring Enterprises centres are ongoing in all the core states except in Lagos and Enugu where lack of counterpart funds has delayed commencement.” The bank added.